Monday, February 15, 2016

Sparkplug Highlight: Bird Girl and Fox Girl

This minicomic follows the threads of Bird Girl and Fox
Girl’s lives after the dissolution of their friendship. Bird Girl moves from
the desert to the city, where she works as a secretary, eventually saving up
enough money for surgery to look like a human girl. Fox Girl becomes a daredevil
model, only accepting potentially life-threatening assignments. Her photos
inspire of viral trend of teenage girls taking selfies just prior to committing
suicide; her popularity plummets and, jobless and homeless, she leaves the city.
Years later, both transformed, Bird Girl and Fox Girl meet again in the desert.
The comic’s lack of dialogue produces a distance from the reader in which the
text echoes. Yumi Sakugawa's art is sparse yet intricate; the rhythmic pacing of image and text
create a poetic, haunting story.